Bitcoin and Litecoin Trading Profits

I already passed on buying Bitcoin back in 2012 (maybe 13?). I was all ready to spend $100 for about 4 or 5 Bitcoin, back then, but it didn’t seem like a simple transaction to make and I thought that MtGox site looked like something I shouldn’t trust my money with and passed. Seems like a mistake at this point, with Bitcoin fluctuating between 15-20K, right? Thoughts of what could’ve been have crossed my mind…but let’s be honest, I probably would’ve sold it all by now anyways, if I didn’t lose it or have it stolen. Anyways, with the huge run up in the crypto markets that is taking place, I thought that I’d engage in more rank speculation with small amounts of money and share it on the site.

Now, I signed up at Coinbase in order to get the free $10 worth of Bitcoin, after buying $100. OK, I was fine with getting 10% of the $100 that I was planning on buying. Add to that, Litecoin was trading around $104, so I bought one coin of that as well and then another when it dropped to $101.

Here were my crypto purchases with fees:

$104 for .0093165 in Bitcoin @ $11,870.53 + $10 of free BTC as a signup bonus.

1 LTC @$108.35

1 LTC @ $105.3

Total Invested: $317.65

Sold Positions with fees:

.0093165 of Bitcoin @ $15878.28 for $146.93

2 Litecoin @ $142.55 for 283.1

Total Sales: $430.03

Total Gain: +$112.38 (+35.37%)

Now, of course, I sold earlier than I should’ve in the most ideal of scenarios. I mean, Litecoin just touched $198 (and back down to $165), within a few hours of selling it for fucks sake. It was $96 when I went to sleep last night! And I don’t go to sleep until well into the early hours of morning. You can’t time the market, especially one this volatile.

Even if you can, there’s no guarantee you can even get a sale order through in time. When BTC was over $19000 or whatever it ended up getting to, Coinbase wasn’t even accessible because of the amount of traffic to the site.

I know, I know HODL all the LTC that you buy, but with short-term profit opportunities like these…I’m taking them. I signed up for an account mostly to trade, though, I will consider taking a buy and hold approach with at least some that I buy in the future. This one day swing was just too crazy and even if Litecoin hits $1000 over the next year or two, I’m not sweating missing out on a potential $2000 sale of the 2 LTC’s I just profited from.